David Meerman Scott, a well-known marketing strategist, coined the term "newsjacking," which he describes as "the process by which you inject your ideas or angles into breaking news, in real-time, in order to generate media coverage for yourself or your business." The concept makes sense, and we all know that a great way to gain relevance online is by leveraging hot topics and news items that are beginning to trend-but it's a competitive, and fast-moving, field. How do content marketers stay on top of the relevant trends and news in their industries to ensure they're curating and communicating fresh, engaging content?

eTeacher Group: A Case of Lost in Translation

The SolutioneTeacher first turned to Drupal, an open source CMS, allowing the company to consolidate its multiple sites under one server and one database. Using Drupal, there were many modules that eTeacher found useful, such as one that allows individual sites to look different but use the same server infrastructure. These “style sheets” allow eTeacher to have a consistent look across its sites but maintain a unique presence for individual offerings while being easier to manage—exactly what eTeacher was looking for. Drupal’s domain access modules that allow the user to take central content and efficiently distribute it to different sites was another efficient function important to the team at eTeacher.

As Drupal solved one part of the problem, ICanLocalize stepped in to solve the myriad problems presented by the translation combinations eTeacher required, effectively streamlining and simplifying eTeacher’s sets of content. It offered just about everything eTeacher needed by way of translation services to work in tandem with Drupal, including the ICanLocalize Translator module. The Translator works directly with Drupal. (There is a similar plug-in integrator for WordPress, and the company will work to build a solution for other content management systems as needed.)

While much of the answer for eTeacher was via technology, the translations themselves still had to be done by human beings—but with a modern twist, of course. To ensure the timely translation that eTeacher requires, ICanLocalize offers access to more than 1,700 freelance translators and hundreds of translation combinations.

Choosing translators from so many options can be daunting. However, ICanLocalize provides client access to online profiles and ratings. ICanLocalize only keeps translators with a rating of “very good” or “excellent,” eliminating translators who have lower ratings from the pool. eTeacher is also able to interview potential translations, enabling the company to select translators that best fulfill its needs.

eTeacher also no longer has to worry about managing its many translators. ICanLocalize acts as a go-between for the client and freelance translators, assisting with spelling out expectations and timetables for both sides and documenting it in the system. ICanLocalize’s Amir Helzer is proud to say, “Clients can rest assured that everything will go okay with this setup, and translators are happy with this arrangement so there are no misunderstandings.”

And what if there is a problem? “We reinforce these agreements … if a deadline is not met, our responsibility is to step in and find out what’s wrong,” Helzer says. ICanLocalize also handles payments for freelancers, making eTeacher happy that it doesn’t have to cut checks for each translator. Binnun says, “They really were the only solution to the real-time content creation we needed.”